UTS Startups, which has cultivated more than 1500 startups and countless young entrepreneurs over the last six years, has announced its new home in Sydney’s Tech Central Precinct.
The new location, to be open by the end of June, will offer early stage acceleration programs to students and staff members at highly discounted rates to encourage “great entrepreneurs who give back to those around them,” according to Director of Entrepreneurship at UTS and managing director of UTS Startups Murray Hurps.
The incubator is a reset of the model for promising early stage startups and is “personally a chance to fix every mistake I’ve made [creating other incubators],” Mr Hurps told InnovationAus.com.
“The scaleup hub has been fantastic, but there is a gap in the market for early market support,”Mr Hurps said. “We will provide free access to programming, including a rapid value creation program to startups that have students on the founding team.”
“Our business model is to reinvest the fees we collect back into the startups and students … [they] are not paying a landlord, [they] are paying for programming.”
Home to Atlassian, Block/Afterpay and accelerators such as Sydney Startup Hub, Sydney’s scaleup hub and TechStars, UTS Startups opens late June on the busiest street corner in Sydney near Central Station, two universities, 160,000 students and 150 research centres.
According to Mr Hurps, the physical proximity of the location to inspiring and notable Australian success stories will be part of the incubator’s attraction to aspirational entrepreneurs.
“There’s a natural hotspot … precincts only work because of the chances you have to have conversations, engage in programs and things you wouldn’t have without physical proximity,” said Mr Hurps.
“It has been amazing to look out of the windows and see the Atlassian building across the road. Buildings [themselves] aren’t important, but we create entrepreneurs by inspiring them through role modelling and supporting them through peer learning,”
Mr Hurps emphasised internal space is also important, saying “if you’re not connected to what you need, an incubator is worthless,”
“UTS Startups was built from the ground up, with software and programs to connect people to what they need … that functions as an engine of engagement and opportunities.”
This includes an entry system that tells arrivals “where the most useful people to engage with and connect to what they need around UTS,” said Mr Hurps.
“Access is underrated – the system will tell you where to sit and where there are similar startups trying to solve that challenge.”
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